Later this month, the Warren County R-III School Board will consider a policy for lactation support at district buildings. 

The board, during its most recent meeting, tabled voting on a policy to address lactation activities. Missouri’s House Bill 432, passed in 2021, requires school districts to adopt written policies to provide accommodations to lactating employees and students to express breast milk, breastfeed a child or address other needs related to breastfeeding.

According to the law, the district must provide a minimum of three opportunities during the day to accommodate expressing breast milk or breastfeeding a child, make accommodations for at least one year after the birth of the child, designate a room in each school building other than a restroom exclusively for lactation activities such as breastfeeding or expressing milk, ensure the designated room is near a sink with running water and a refrigerator for storage, and ensure the designated room has ventilation, a door that may be locked, a work surface, a chair and convenient electrical outlets. 

Board member Sarah Janes supports providing a space for mothers for lactation activities. However, she questioned whether this was feasible in school district buildings. 

“The idea of having a room to be able to go, that would be helpful to a mom,” Janes said. “Some people, they use their office. Some have figured out different ways. But I don’t know if we would actually be able to have a room in every building that is for just that. And the concern was that it says that this room is 'exclusively' used for lactation activities.”

School District Superintendent Gregg Klinginsmith believes the district can identify a space where there is no other activity happening while the room is being used for lactation activities. 

“In every building, we need to identify what that room is,” Klinginsmith said. “And…whatever else is happening in that room gets trumped by the person that needs to use it for lactation activities. And so whatever’s happening, if it’s an office or whatever, they would be told to leave and then the person that needed to use it for lactation could.”

Klinginsmith noted there are certain district buildings where there is no space to designate a room just for lactation activities. They would need to add on to the building, he said. 

Klinginsmith questioned whether the spirit of the new law is for districts to construct new rooms for lactation activities. 

“I really can’t imagine the spirit of this law being ‘I want every school district and every school building in the state to build a new facility,’” Klinginsmith said. “But maybe so. If that’s the way we interpret it, that’s what we’ll do.”

Board member Rodger Tucker said he is leaning toward designating a room specifically for lactation activities.

“I don’t like the idea of someone having to knock on a door and say can I use this room for this purpose,” Tucker said. “I don’t want them to feel like they’re putting somebody out.”

Board member Jeff Schneider asked the board to seek more information on what it would take to designate a room in each district building, with budget implications at each building. They can then proceed with determining the meaning of what the law means by “exclusive use,” he said. 

The board will be presented with more information at their June meeting. A deadline for a lactation support policy has been set on July 1.